Hanukkah

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT HANUKKAH

There have been boycotts this year of stores that do not include the word "Christmas" in advertising and displays, favoring instead the more generic "holidays." Has political correctness -- or is there a better term? -- gone too far in excluding Christmas from this holiday season? Yes, I know that there are other holidays being celebrated at the same time. However, the Christmas season started with the first day of Advent, Nov. 27, and continues until after the celebration of Epiphany on Jan. 6. Christmas is truly a "season," while other celebrations are at most eight days long.

Luis Pena Newport Beach Rat Packer Joey Bishop helped set the holiday spirit by lighting a giant chocolate menorah at Fashion Island. Fashion Island was the site of the Chabad Jewish Center's annual menorah lighting ceremony, which was attended by more than 1,200 people. The Hebrew Academy had children singing several traditional Hebrew songs, such as the "Dreidel Song." Members of the crowd swaying back and fourth and clapping as the young children sang on stage.

Danette Goulet NEWPORT BEACH - While there is no policy in place to handle situations such as the stringing of holiday lights on school grounds, district officials said Thursday that parents need to be sensitive and check with principals before working on a school site. "The principal is ultimately responsible for what goes on, and before any parent comes to do anything, I felt they should have consulted the principal," said school board member Serene Stokes.

Jennifer Kho Seniors clapped, sang and played dreidel games Tuesday at Costa Mesa Senior Center's first-ever Hanukkahcelebration. "It's my idea that every holiday should be celebrated," said Aviva Goelman, the center's executive director. "I think they're excited. I just want to make them aware there are people who celebrate other holidays besides Christmas. And we have Jewish patrons. I want them to feel we are serving them as well as everyone else."

Danette Goulet Students were decked out in their finest clothes. Girls wore velvet dresses with big red bows in their hair. Boys wore festive sweaters and crisply pressed shirts. And parents spilled out of doorways and stretched up on tiptoes Wednesday morning, each straining to catch a glimpse of their child performing in the holiday program at Paularino Elementary School in Costa Mesa. The students stood, solemn, serious and dignified, while their parents hopped up and down, waving frantically to get their children's attention.

Seniors and other community members began their holiday season Tuesday by decorating a Costa Mesa Senior Center Christmas tree with teddy bears, angels, stars and Disney cartoon characters. The TeWinkle Intermediate School band played Christmas music during the decorating and, during lunch, Santa read a Christmas story to the decorators. The event launched the senior center's holiday program, which will include a performance by the Page Private Schools 82-member choir from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, a second tree decorating at 1 p.m. Friday with entertainment provided by the Phoenix House and a performance by the TeWinkle Intermediate School choir at 11:30 a.m. Monday.

SPECIAL EVENTS ALTERNATIVE MARKET St. Mark Presbyterian Church will host its annual Alternative Christmas Market from 10:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday. The market supports Third-World craft producers and projects such as Habitat for Humanity and offers an alternative way to experience Christmas giving. The church is at 2100 Mar Vista Drive, Newport Beach. (949) 644-1341. UNITARIAN SPEAKER The Rev. William G. Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Assn.

RACHEL Rachel is mourning again for her children, not in far Bethlehem where carnage came to innocents, but in Newtown, where first-graders were gunned down. Yes, gunned down, because we kill so many children year by blood-soaked year with weapons meant for war or self-defense but seized upon by raging men who get them, oh, so easily. We are the species so grand in virtue, so terrible in crime. We are the species so capable of wondrous goodness, so depraved in violence.

MUSIC FOR A CAUSE Temple Bat Yahm will sponsor the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Musical Ensemble at 7 p.m. Sunday at the temple, 1011 Camelback Drive, Newport Beach. $18. (949) 644-1999. TRADITIONAL HOLIDAY MUSIC "Songs of Celebration," a Christmas concert sponsored by the Newport Beach Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sunday at 2150 Bonita Canyon Road and Prairie Road, Newport Beach.